Online Payments

Online payments are secured 24/7, all in real time thanks to the newest technologies such as artificial intelligence

500 000 of verified transactions per day

Online payments are verified within a moment

Almost 280 milion CZK saved

Nearly 1400 fraud revealed

The most common frauds that you might encounter

Fake Advertisement

Are you planning on buying products online at a suspiciously low price? Be careful! We advise you to carefully verify the counterparty. Moreover, you should not transfer any funds in advance.

There is an increase in reports of fake ads offering electronics, cars or agricultural machinery. Are you planning on replying to an offer like this? You should pay attention to the following details:

  • Unreasonably low price coupled with a request for full or partial payment in advance
  • Products are located abroad
  • Delivery by a middleman, who would guarantee delivery of the goods and/or potential refund
  • Ads may be written in broken Czech or in English, published on Czech or foreign websites or forums
  • Even though websites of advertisers or forwarding agencies may look credible, there is no guarantee your products would ever arrive

If in doubt, do not transfer any money. Make the best effort to verify the offer so that you do not end up buying a pig in a poke.

Fake Invoice

Have you received an email from your business partner notifying you of new payment instructions? Attention!

We advise you to verify such information – either in person or via telephone – using contact details that you normally use or that are publicly available. Attackers may alter the relevant payment instructions sent by email and you may ultimately transfer money to a scam artist, without even knowing about it.

Romance Scam

Have you met someone online or via social networking sites? Be cautious!

You have been friends for a while and now he or she contacts you with a request for financial assistance. Scam artists usually have a heart-warming story - often involving illness or death in the family - or promise to meet you in person. These people often try to establish their credibility by presenting fake IDs or pictures or by offering “personal” communication via Skype.

In most cases, they cannot – for some reason – access their financial funds and they promise to return your loan soon. We advise you to control your emotions and really think everything over before actually transferring any money.

Fake Accommodation Offer

Have you found suspiciously cheap accommodation at an accommodation site, such as Airbnb? Be careful!

Accommodation sites have clearly defined rules governing payments for accommodation. Review these rules and always follow them.

If anyone requests another payment method, do not make the payment and verify everything with the given site.

Tremendous Wealth

Have you received an email with a promise of tremendous wealth? Be cautious!

Would someone like to voluntarily share a substantial part of their lottery winnings or unexpected inheritance with you? In this case, scam artists will request some payment, such as fees for opening an account abroad, legal fees, etc.

These scams always have one thing in common – a request for payment of a sum of money. If you in fact make such payment, you will most likely lose the promised fortune as well as your own money.

Fake President

Have you received an email from your manager asking you for an account balance and for an express payment? Pay attention!

An accounting company specialized in technology has received a request about an account balance from managing director of the company sent from “his” phone if it is possible to make a payment for almost 28 000 EUR. The accountant responded immediately and informed the director about the current account balance as well as about the exchange rate.

The attacker ordered in response to send the payment immediately due to his payment instructions with a promise to provide the invoice later. The accountant entered and authorized the payment order. The real managing director was on previously announced business trip at the moment, thus it is not possible to simply verify the transaction with him.

Fraudulent investments

Are you interested in an offer for advantageous investments? Be careful!

Have you found an offer of advantageous investments in your e-mail box or on social networks, in which even celebrities invest? We recommend maximum caution in these cases. These are often fraudulent offers of investments in, for example,  ryptocurrencies.

In some cases, after expressing interest, you will be contacted directly by "investment advisers" offering to manage your investments by themselves. They may even ask you for your banking access data. In such cases, do not force the installation of a remote desktop management application, for example, and of course do not share your banking access data with anyone under any circumstances! In general, for all such investments, consider their credibility and obtain sufficient information and references for the intermediary before deciding whether to invest.
 

Vishing

Have you been contacted by someone who pretends to be an employee of the bank and wants sensitive data from you or requires authorization in the KB key? Be cautious!

Unfortunately, we all already know what phishing is, but have you encountered so-called vishing (voice phishing)? This is an act similar to classic phishing in order to obtain sensitive data and information from the user to access his banking or payment card. Only in these cases will you not receive a phishing email but a fraudulent call. Fraudsters impersonate bank security officers and try to extract a username and phone number from clients under various legends to verify access from a new device. At this point, the client receives a request to the KB key to confirm / reject the login from the new device. Always pay attention to what you confirm with your KB key! If you believe the fraudster's legend that, for example, you are "authorizing the cancellation of a fraudulent payment" and you do not check that you are actually confirming his login, he has access to your banking at that moment. If you suspect, do not hesitate to end the call and call back to the publicly available number of Komerční banka.

Share of fraud per type in 2022

Where fraudulent transactions were headed in 2022

USEFUL INFORMATION

Fake president

An accounting company specialized in technology has received a request about an account balance from managing director of the company sent from “his” phone if it is possible to make a payment for almost 28.000 EUR. The accountant responded immediately and informed the director about the current account balance as well as about the exchange rate.

The attacker ordered to send the payment immediately according to his payment instructions with a promise to provide the invoice later. The accountant entered and authorized the payment order. The real managing director was on previously announced business trip at the moment, thus it is not possible to simply verify the transaction with him.

Thanks to bank control, it was found out that the payment meets parameters of a fake president fraud. The client confirmed the fraud after contacting the director. In this specific case, nearly 28.000 EUR was saved to the client.

 

Fake invoice

Client dealing with production of chemicals made an agreed payment towards one of his foreign business partners. During the e-mail communication, the alleged business partner informed the client about the necessity of alternative payment instructions with an excuse for technical reasons. The client sent the payment towards changed account number in good faith.

KB team found discrepancy between countries of beneficiary and the bank. As per recommendation, the client verified account number over the phone with the counterpart and confirmed fraud. Client was saved from losing nearly 18.000 EUR.

 

Social engineering

Client in pensionable age, Ms Alena from Prague, sent money to a person in Turkey. After being contacted by KB employee, it was found out that payment is going to customs office in Turkey, where they keep a package from her alleged boyfriend from the internet.

We warned the client about payment characteristics fully responding to the scheme of fraud practice and in the end, she made the decision to cancel the transaction. The client was saved from losing nearly 1500 EUR.

Advertisement scam – vehicle

Client from Ostrava found on domestic advertisement portal a favourable offer for sale of his dream vehicle. After contacting the seller it was found out that the vehicle is not situated in Czech Republic and the seller communicates in English. Due to a legend made-up by fraudster it was necessary to sell the vehicle because of ecological taxes outside Germany, from where the seller was supposed to be and money was transferred to Great Britain, while the seller was working as a doctor in Greece due to his legend. Warrantor of the transaction was supposed to be a shipping company represented by natural person. Does it seem complicated? Unfortunately even such stories might be successful and the only thing standing between the victim and the fraudster were our employees. After contacting the client and verifying all fraudulent characteristics of the case, the transaction was not proceeded. We saved our client over 5000 EUR.

Advertisement scam – accommodation

Client from central Bohemia, who was searching for an accommodation, found on the internet an advertisement, which was backed by a logo of well-known portal offering shared accommodation. However, this communication was based on e-mail conversation outside the official portal of the accommodation provider and the fraudster also offered the lease for lower price. Typical characteristics of this fraud is a payment required by bank transfer instead of payment card and is going to natural person, who has often an atypical name due to the recipient country. In this case we revealed this features and warned client about this fact. For his next travelling, he had 1700 EUR more.

Fraudulent investments

An older client from the Olomouc region received an offer by email for advantageous investments in cryptocurrencies. After filling in the basic information, he was contacted by a counterparty with a request to install an application that will allow "traders" to manage his portfolio. In this way, they looked at part of the login details for the client and provided the rest to them voluntarily. The result was a series of outbound transactions. Although these were real purchases of cryptocurrencies, but as you already know, not on behalf of the client, but fraudsters.

Vishing

The client was called very early in the morning by a young man posing as a KB employee, saying that a fraudulent transaction was leaving her account heading Bulgaria. To stop it, he first required the client to send an email, where he would send the details (in the hope that the client has such an email set as his username). The telephone number he previously had was the only one of the clients, so he used it as another level of verification of the login from the new device. Now the client has been notified on her device with a request to confirm the login in the KB key. The fraudster informed the client that with this confirmation he authorized the suspension of the fraudulent payment and the client, upset and asleep, confirmed this operation in the KB key without checking. This granted the fraudster access to banking and under the same legend a moment later authorized KB with a key transaction entered by the fraudster for 31,000. Fortunately, we managed to stop the payment in cooperation with colleagues in the beneficiary's bank, but not all stories have to end happily.

Have you become a victim of a fraud? If you noticed a suspicious activity, let us know immediately.

Client centre line: +420 955 551 552

You do not have to worry, your login or transaction is safe. Our system for fraud detection decides, if it is necessary to send the SMS or not.

Our security employees contact clients in order to verify suspicious transactions. They might ask you to identify yourself, but they never ask you about sensitive data such as your login details or PIN. If you are in doubt that it's really us calling you, ask to be contacted by your bank advisor.